Calgary Pride Parade has announced their sponsorships and grants have decreased by $300,000 in 2025."We've definitely seen the rollback of DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] across the US unfortunately trickling into Canada as well," Taylor Sanford, manager of Membership and Fund Development with Calgary Pride told CBC.This seems to be a trend among pride parades in other Canadian cities this year, with Toronto losing $900,000, and Vancouver out $400,000.Big-name corporations that backed out of the parades in Toronto include Home Depot and Google, and in Vancouver, Lululemon and Walmart. .Calgary Pride, due to the reduction in funding, has postponed their culture festival to 2026.As for the companies that sponsored Calgary pride in 2024 but have not this year, they include Site Connection, and Lawson and Lundell LLP.The Western Standard reached out to a list of companies from the most recent 2023 annual sponsorship report published by Calgary Pride and from 2024 social media posts announcing some of their sponsorships. Site connection stated, "Unfortunately our sponsorship budget for this year's events and festivals filled up pretty quick at the beginning of the year. We are still providing our data services at the festival.".Lawson and Lundell LLP said, "our firm is not a sponsor at this year’s parade."When asked for any additional comments they stated, "We have no further comments on this matter."The Western Standard also contacted several larger corporations that were recorded sponsors back in 2023, such as Sobeys, Coke Canada, Shell, and Enmax, but received no response.Another major sponsor — Loblaws — has stated they are funding the 2025 parade.
